Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Summary

The poem's sections move among thirteen different scenes or thoughts, all linked together by the figure of the blackbird. The poem begins in a snowy mountain landscape (I), then moves through the speaker's conflicted mind (II), the autumn winds (III), and thoughts on the blackbird's whistling (V). The middle of the poem looks more towards human society, first with an icy window (VI), men and women in a Connecticut town (VII), and a rich man in a carriage (XI), interspersing more abstract thoughts on the blackbird with direct accounts of the speaker's experience (VIII, IX). The poem's last two sections return to a landscape scene, with a moving river (XII) and the blackbird sitting in a tree amidst the falling snow (XIII). In most of these very short, imagistic sections, the blackbird is the distinct sensory focus, often as a stark contrast of black bird on white snow or as the only flash of motion.